SAP OMF: merchant plugin guide

About this guide

This guide describes how to set up a connection between SAP OMF and ChannelEngine.

Table of contents

Introduction

Features

Prerequisites

Setup

• On SAP OMF
• On ChannelEngine

How it works

How the data flows

FAQs

Introduction

SAP order management foundation (OMF) is a cloud-based solution that allows merchants to optimize order processing, order routing, and analytics. Using ChannelEngine's SAP OMF plugin, you can synchronize your ecommerce processes between the two systems.

ChannelEngine's SAP OMF plugin works based on events. The plugin subscribes to the events published by SAP OMF. Once SAP OMF puts a new event in the queue, e.g., when it creates a shipment, ChannelEngine retrieves the event and calls SAP OMF's API to retrieve the necessary data.

Features

Supported	Not supported
Orders (incl. marketplace-fulfilled)	Product content*
Shipments	Product offers*
Merchant cancelations	Returns
	Multiple stock locations
	Marketplace cancelations

* SAP OMF is designed for order management. It does not currently support product content, offers, or returns. When SAP OMF adds these features, ChannelEngine will update the plugin accordingly.

Prerequisites

To use SAP OMF, you need to purchase a license for the module and perform technical configuration and business customization tasks. To learn more about the initial steps, check out the SAP Help Portal.

Setup

To establish a successful connection between SAP OMF and ChannelEngine, complete the following steps.

On SAP OMF

Create a service instance

In your SAP BTP cockpit, create a service instance and a service key to communicate with the service instance. To do this, complete the steps in the Enabling the service article in the SAP Help Portal. 

Enable business events

In your SAP Order Management Hub, go to Business configuration, Integration settings and set the Business events enabled setting to 'Yes' so that ChannelEngine receives event notifications during the order lifecycle.

Configure SAP event mesh

In your SAP BTP cockpit, configure the SAP Event Mesh to communicate with ChannelEngine through asynchronous events. Note that Event Mesh requires authorized queue access to allow REST APIs to send and receive messages.

Configure activity type details

To synchronize the events between SAP OMF and ChannelEngine, in your SAP Order Management Hub, go to Order activity settings, Standard activity types and add a new activity type as follows:

• Standard activity type ID - SAP_SHIPPED
• Name - Item shipped
• Description - Item shipped
• Items optional - No
• Activity type enabled - Yes
• Publish event notification - Yes
• Display in activities list - Yes

Go to System activity types and add new activity types as follows:

• System activity type ID - SAP_ITEMFULLYSHIPPED
• Name - Item fully shipped
• Description - Item fully shipped
• Publish event notification - Yes
• Display in activities list - Yes

• System activity type ID - SAP_ORDERCANCELED_DURING_PROCESSING
• Name - Order canceled during processing
• Description - Order canceled during processing
• Publish event notification - Yes
• Display in activities list - Yes

Once the activities are created, event notifications are sent to SAP Event Mesh. These events trigger follow-up processes on ChannelEngine, such as creating a shipment or acknowledging an order.

On ChannelEngine

1. Log in to ChannelEngine. From the left-hand side menu, go to Plugins.
2. On the Plugins page, enter 'SAP' in the search bar.
3. Click Add to add the plugin to your tenant.
4. Go to the plugin Setup page.
5. In the Connection settings, enter the required credentials. To find the credentials, in your SAP BTP cockpit, go to Services, Instances and subscriptions. Locate the service instances for Order Management Foundation and Event Mesh. For each instance, click View credentials.
   • Host URL
   • Authorization URL
   • Client ID
   • Client Secret
   • SAP Event Mesh URL
   • SAP Event Mesh authorization URL
   • SAP Event Mesh Client ID
   • SAP Event Mesh Client Secret
6. Click Save.
7. Go to the Activation tab and switch on the Activate synchronization for SAP toggle. This triggers an attempt to make a test API call to your plugin environment. If an error is returned instead of a green highlight, the credentials are invalid. Double-check the settings and try again.

Advanced settings

• Synchronization of orders fulfilled by marketplace - when enabled, orders fulfilled by the marketplace are synchronized between ChannelEngine and SAP OMF – with the statuses Fulfilled or Archived. You can set a specific date from which to import the orders, however, make sure the date is correct as this is a one-time action.
• Fulfillment by marketplace market ID for channel [marketplace name] - a market ID that enables SAP OMF to trigger the corresponding processing of marketplace-fulfilled orders. The market ID must match an existing market ID in SAP OMF. To locate the market ID, in your SAP Order Management Hub, go to Business configuration, Markets.
• Fulfillment by merchant market ID for channel [marketplace name] - a market ID that enables SAP OMF to trigger the corresponding processing of orders fulfilled by the merchant. The market ID must match an existing market ID in SAP OMF. To locate the market ID, in your SAP Order Management Hub, go to Business configuration, Markets.

Import product feed

To communicate your product content and offers with ChannelEngine, import your product feed.

1. Export your product data to a file. The file format can be CSV, XML, or JSON.
2. Publish the export file to the web and copy its URL.
3. On ChannelEngine, go to Products, Product feeds, and click Add feed.
4. Paste the copied URL into the relevant field and click Load product feed.
5. Map your product attributes. For a full walkthrough of the steps, check out the article ChannelEngine: product feeds.

How it works

Once SAP OMF is connected with your ChannelEngine tenant, your orders, shipments, and cancelations are synchronized between both systems.

Tasks are automatically scheduled to synchronize data between SAP OMF and ChannelEngine, e.g., Import shipments from merchant and Export orders to merchant. Go to the Dashboard tab to check the latest executed tasks and their next schedule.

How the data flows

The order data flows differently depending on whether the orders are fulfilled by the merchant or the marketplace.

Merchant-fulfilled orders

1. When a new order is placed on the marketplace, ChannelEngine creates an order with a status New. Then, it schedules a task to send the order to SAP API.
2. Once SAP OMF creates the order in its back-end, ChannelEngine updates the order status to In progress. If the order could not be created, its status remains New, and ChannelEngine retries the order export task.
3. After SAP OMF picks and packs the order, it puts a shipment event on the queue.
4. ChannelEngine listens for the event and processes it. After retrieving the shipment information from SAP API, ChannelEngine creates a shipment with the tracking information. This is later sent to the marketplace so that the customer can track their parcel.
5. If the order is canceled on SAP OMF, SAP OMF adjusts the order and puts an event in the queue.
6. ChannelEngine retrieves the new event, fetches the order update, and marks the order as Canceled. This is later communicated to the marketplace so that the customer gets refunded.

Marketplace-fulfilled orders

1. When a new order is placed on the marketplace, ChannelEngine creates an order with a Shipped status, and schedules a task to send the order to the SAP API.
2. Once SAP OMF creates the order in its back-end, ChannelEngine exports the shipment to the SAP API.
3. SAP OMF creates the shipment in its back-end.

FAQs

How often does each task run on SAP OMF plugin?

By default, the SAP OMF plugin follows the schedule below:

Task	Frequency
Export orders to merchant	every 15 minutes
Import cancelations from merchant	every 15 minutes
Import shipments from merchant	every 15 minutes